iPoe Collection

Spanish studio Play Creatividad took up the substantial challenge of engaging young readers with the classics, and the result is iPoe Collection, an interactive Edgar Allan Poe app that combines classic literature and technology with an original soundtrack and beautiful images.

The application contains some of the best known stories of the author, such as The Oval Portrait, The Black Cat, The Raven and The Masque of the Red Death, enriching them with illustrations, animation, interaction and an original soundtrack created by the Play Creatividad team. The ebook is enhanced rather than simply interactive, and the combination of all the elements makes it difficult to define. The creators have worked hard to make the interactions engage the reader more deeply with the text rather than distract from it (you can caress a cat, sever a corpse or open coffins while you read.)

Efren, CEO of Play Creatividad says: “We were looking for an author that allowed us to play with all the elements, and Poe seemed to be the perfect mixture of mystery, tension, frights and macabre scenes. It really suited the idea and we made the most of it”.

The Play team believe that paper books will never disappear, but that digital books attract a new, younger audience who expect more. The iPoe app (which is designed with a paper effect) has been used by hundreds of high school teachers to hook in the children who might otherwise be turned off by the classics.

iPoe Collection is qualitatively different from other applications. As illustrator David García Forés says: “We are not trying to create silly games. The App store is usually a source of time-wasting applications, not brain-activating tools. We wanted to do something with sense, not just for playing.” iPoe is not a casual app – it’s for those who like to use their devices to enrich their lives.

The hard work is paying off. The app has had thousands of downloads and excellent ratings from users, as well as winning several awards. Its success has allowed Play Creatividad to launch a second volume at the end of 2012, iPoe2: The Raven, The Black Cat and Other Interactive and Illustrated Edgar Allan Poe Stories.